The present invention is related to medical devices, systems, and methods, and is also relevant to robotic devices, systems, and methods for their use in medical and other robotic applications. In one embodiment, the invention provides a grip actuation system within a master/slave robot arrangement to give a system operator tactile feedback of grip strength when gripping small objects.
Minimally invasive surgical techniques are intended to reduce the amount of an extraneous tissue which is damaged during diagnostic or surgical procedures. By reducing the trauma to surrounding tissues, patient recovery time, discomfort, and deleterious side effects can be reduced. While many surgeries are performed each year in the United States, and although many of these surgeries could potentially be performed in a minimally invasive manner, only a relatively small percentage of surgeries currently use the new minimally invasive techniques now being developed. This may be in part due to limitations in minimally invasive surgical instruments and techniques, as well as the additional surgical training involved in mastering these techniques.
While known minimally invasive surgical techniques hold great promise, there are significant disadvantages which have, to date, limited the applications for these promising techniques. For example, the standard laparoscopic instruments used in many minimally invasive procedures do not provide the surgeon the flexibility of tool placement found in open surgery. Additionally, manipulation of delicate and sensitive tissues can be difficult while manipulating these long-handled tools from outside the body. Many surgical procedures are complicated by the limited access provided to the surgical site, in which tools and viewing scopes are often inserted through narrow cannulae, all while viewing the procedure in a monitor which is often positioned at a significantly different angle than the patient.
To overcome these disadvantages, minimally invasive telesurgical systems are now being developed. These systems will increase a surgeon's dexterity and effectiveness within constrained internal surgical sites. In a robotic surgery system, an image of the surgical site can be displayed adjacent master input devices. The system operator will manually manipulate these input devices, thereby controlling the motion of robotic surgical instruments. A servomechanism will generally move surgical end effectors in response to the operator's manipulation of the input devices, ideally providing translation, rotation, and grip actuation modes. As the servomechanism moves the surgical end effectors in response to movement of the input devices, the system operator retains control over the surgical procedure. The servomechanism may move the devices in position and orientation, and a processor of the servomechanism can transform the inputs from the system operator so that the end effector movements, as displayed to the system operator at the master control station, follow the position and orientation of the input devices as perceived by the system operator. This provides the system operator with a sense of “telepresence” at the internal surgical site.
The robotic surgical systems now being developed show tremendous promise for increasing the number and types of surgeries which may be performed in a minimally invasive manner. Nonetheless, these known systems could benefit from still further improvements. For example, although force feedback systems for robotic surgery have been proposed, the added cost and complexity of these proposed force feedback systems has often limited their implementation. Additionally, work in connection with the present invention has shown that known force reflecting master/slave robotic arrangements without force sensors may not be ideal for implementation of tactile feedback to the system operator in all the actuation modes within a telesurgical system, particularly in grip.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to provide improved surgical devices, systems, and methods. It would also be desirable to provide improved robotic devices, systems, and methods, both for use in robotic surgical systems and other robotic applications. It would be beneficial if these improvements enhanced the operator's control over, and tactile feedback from, the robotic end effectors. It would further be desirable if these improvements did not unnecessarily complicate the system, and if these improved techniques recognized differences between grip and other actuation modes that might justify specialized grip systems.